Don't feel sorry for those

Whitewater High School freshmen forced to spend this year wandering around

the aging, dusty quarters of the LaFayette Educational Center. Come August,

they'll cross over to the "Promised Land" - a fully

finished, completely outfitted $25 million Whitewater High School complex

delivered on time and, remarkably, under budget.

That may be a first for the

Fayette County Board of Education, which historically has built new high

schools in phases over two or three years. Athletic fields and stadiums

were projects for booster clubs to rally around. Sandy Creek, built 13

years ago, is just now getting an auditorium. McIntosh, the county's

oldest high school campus still in use, is finally getting a decent gym,

22 years after opening on 35 acres, now maxed out.

Facilities Services Director

Mike Satterfield proudly calls Whitewater the "prototype high school"

for the future, and not just in Fayette County. A meeting of school facilities

managers from around the state will come to Fayetteville next fall just

to see what the talk is about.

Whitewater, sharing more than

100 acres with Sara Harp Minter Elementary, already has a completed 4,000

seat football stadium with ready-to-run rubber track, separate softball

and baseball complexes, and sodded, fenced practice fields for football,

soccer and marching band. The gym, with a ceiling that soars to endless

rows of celestial windows, will seat more than 2,000. The cafeteria, sharing

a wall of glass with the gym, is just as big and bright and might seat

as many. It's far and away the biggest cafeteria ever built in Fayette

County, inspired by the realization that Starr's Mill's dining

hall is woefully small, said Satterfield.

Whitewater was designed by

a Griffin firm and is being built by Japanese, but it got its roots at

Sandy Creek. The two schools share a common "footprint," a proven

layout that calls for parallel classroom wings on one side, and all auxiliary

facilities like gym, fine arts, special ed wing, library and offices balancing

the other.

And then there is the auditorium.

Though largely still a shell, a visitor can easily stand on the stage

and see where industry-standard light riggings and fly system will soon

be installed, complete with a series of catwalks accessed by a dizzying

circular stairway just off stage left. Outfitted with about 600 sloping

seats, the theater will include stage-level wings flanking the entire

length of the theater. A loading dock outback will accommodate load-in

for touring shows. The lobby, stark and minimalistic, includes two ticket

windows. There will be a marquee.

For all its bells and whistles,

Whitewater High will be functional, not fancy, said Principal Greg Stillions.

The same brick color scheme on the exterior will be carried over to accent

hexagon-shaped entry lobbies at four corners of the main building. Otherwise,

the walls will be Fayette County White, a special blend created exclusively

for the system by Duron Paints. Instead of carpet, floors will be tiled.

And classrooms? They won't

have windows, at least not to the outside. Interior glass panels opaqued

for privacy will allow light into rooms via huge glass panels in the hallway

ceilings. Skylights are possible only because AC units, wiring and plumbing

is contained in innovative "utility hallways" that are hidden

down the center of each row of classrooms. Maintenance crews can do routine

work without hauling a ladder into the middle of a busy class, a feature

Satterfield is especially proud of.

Sure, there will be imperfections

when Whitewater High comes online in June. But for the most part, this

is one well-planned complex. Consider: The wide, green lawn in front of

Minter Elementary, which commuters admire from Hwy. 85, conceals a massive

underground septic system that serves both schools, Satterfield said.

Millions of gallons of sewerage is pumped into holding tanks deep underground

daily, where nature takes its course. And if it fails? Not to worry. Twenty

additional acres on the opposite side of the high school sit vacant, waiting

for nothing more than to be called into service.

That's smart.

Welcome to Wildcat Country.